[Lawrence Kushner is a
writer, teacher, and rabbi of Temple Beth-El in Sudbury, MA.(USA)]

The
story is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev that once on Kol Nidre,
the holiest night of the year when all sins are confessed, the tailor, one
of the most devout members of the community, was absent. Concerned, the rabbi
left the synagogue and went to the tailor’s home. To his surprise he
found the tailor looking at a piece of paper before him on the table.
“What’s the matter?” asked Levi Yitzhak.

“Oh,
everything’s fine,” replied the tailor. “As I was getting
ready to attend the service I made a list with two columns. At the top of
one I wrote my name and at the top of the other I wrote, ‘God of all
the Universe.’ Then, one by one, I began to list my sins. ‘Cheated
Goldman out of a pair of trousers.’ And in God’s column I noted
God’s omission: ‘Little girl died of diphtheria.’ Then the
next sin, ‘Lost my temper with my children,’ and in God’s
column, ‘I heard there was a famine in another country.’”
And so it went. The tailor showed the rabbi the completed list. “And
for every sin I had committed during the past year, God had done one too.
So I said to God, ‘Look, we each have the same number of sins. If you
let me off, I’ll let You off!’ ”

But
the story doesn’t end there. When the rabbi looked at the paper his
face grew red and he scolded his friend: “You fool! You had Him and
you let Him go!”

Here
is a kind of relationship with God unique to Jewish tradition. Jews don’t
just get angry with God. They call God to account. In Abraham’s words,
as he argues the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, “Will You sweep away the
innocent along with the guilty?. . . Shall not the Judge of all the earth
deal justly?” (Genesis 18:23-35)

The
man, in effect, is saying, “Just who the hell do You think You are?”

But
there’s another curve ball. If you believe, as I do, that “it’s
all God,” then how do we argue with what we’re made of? That destabilizes
us, makes us very uncomfortable. It means we have to talk to ourselves. We
no longer have the luxury of putting all the nasty decisions and deeds on
some distant, omniscient, omnipotent God, and freeing ourselves to bask in
moral security. God says, in effect, “And whom do you think you’re
talking to? Hold up a mirror. When you’re done with that conversation,
come back to Me. . . .”